Customers at toy retailer The Entertainer have raised over £100,000 for charity in six months by donating their electronic spare change. The donations, made through the Pennies electronic charity box, reached their peak in the pre-Christmas week when they totalled nearly £13,000.

The majority of the money raised by The Entertainer will be shared equally between four children’s hospitals: Liverpool’s Alder Hey Imagine Appeal; Birmingham Children’s Hospital; Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal which fundraises for Bristol Children’s Hospital; and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. The remainder will be divided between ten other registered charities covering a range of causes including the elderly, cancer support and arts & education.

The Entertainer, which was the first high street retailer to sign up to the micro-donation scheme, found that nearly half of its customers who could donate in December chose to do so.

Managing director, Gary Grant, said: "People are inclined to be generous, and we have provided this very simple option for them to easily donate their small change. It has been amazing to see how those micro-donations add up to make a difference. Our traditional charity boxes would generate less than £2000 a year so it has been tremendous to see the donations come in so quickly and easily with the electronic charity box."

The remaining quarter of The Entertainer customer donations have been shared between ten other UK charities.

Alison Hutchinson, CEO of The Pennies Foundation, said: "We have always known that pennies are powerful, but we’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of The Entertainer’s customers. More than from 350,000 individual donations have been made in such a short period of time, demonstrating how quickly those pennies can add up. We are so pleased that The Entertainer’s customers have embraced micro-donations and are making a real difference to sick children’s lives."

Pennies is currently offered at seven other retailers including Go Outdoors and Domino’s Pizza as well as in Zizzi restaurants. So far more than 1.5 million consumer donations have been received through Pennies, raising over £380,000 for a total of 27 UK charities.